Technical education
Technical Education holds the key to the tangible development of a country. Some 45 polytechnic and a few mono-technique institutes have been established for imparting technical education in Diploma Engineering level. It is a four-year course after SSC which is conducted by the collaboration of the directorate of technical education and Bangladesh Technical Education Board.
The infrastructure of these polytechnics is deteriorating day by day. They are suffering from severe shortage of teachers. At best 40% teachers are available against the teaching strength. At present 20 old polytechnics are conducting 2nd shift along with the regular one with the same number of teachers. This means that less than 40% teachers are doing 200% jobs. There is no promotion for most of the teachers who are serving in the same post for 20-25 years although they have all required educational qualification and the experience. So, the quality of education will certainly fall. The compromise of quality with quantity can never yield a positive result. New departments have been introduced with just one or no teachers at all in several polytechnics. There are lots of instances where just a single teacher carries out the responsibility of a whole department with four semesters, each having 2 shifts. That means just one teacher is assigned for 8 batches of students. The condition is even worse in some cases where there is no teacher in some departments. Some teachers are hired from another department for just carrying out the administrative task and a few teachers are appointed on part-time basis whose quality are not up to the mark and the responsibility is questionable.
Recently, the govt. withheld the appointment of a good number of teachers in a project for the polytechnic institutes for almost nothing. Even the viva voce was complete and the appointment was just knocking at the door. The new appointments could ease the acute teacher shortage to some extent and the whole polytechnic system could have breathed a sigh of relief. But the unwise decision by the authorities is pushing the whole system into further disarray.
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